Difference Between Payroll and Income Taxes (With Table)

Payroll taxes are taxes paid by both employers and employees. The amount of tax paid depends on the salary paid by employers to their staff (salary or wages). As the salary increases, the tax rate decreases. They are collected to provide the benefits or increase their benefits in the future. They can be medicare tax, unemployment tax, or social security tax.

Income tax is paid by employees on their income or profit they make. The tax rate depends on the type and amount of income. They are collected by the government for making the development in society and environmental progress, for example, to make a contribution in the military sector. The rate of tax increase if the income or profit of the individual increases. They are not paid by employers. If not paid on time or at all, the income saved is turned into black money.

Comparison Table Between Payroll and Income Taxes

What are Payroll Taxes?

This tax is consists of unemployment tax and social security tax and charged on the amount of payroll. Family status, domicile, or other circumstances are not considered while charging this tax. It is divided into folioing two categories:

1. Deduction from employee’s salary: under this employer withheld his employee’s wage or salary. It is also called withholding tax. This is used to cover unemployment tax, disability insurance, etc.
2. Taxes paid by the Employer In Lieu of Employee’s Wages: in this employee paid tax from his fund. This contributes to social security and insurance programs, etc.

Objectives:

• It contributes to the development and growth of the business sector in the economy.
• For facilitating the provision of rebate paid by the employer on behalf of his employees.
• To help the business in the initial year for achieving the target.
• To help the business expand or even shift from one location to another.

This amount received as payroll tax is owned by the government, and therefore, in care of non-payment or less payment, the payee will get punishment and finely defined under the section. The punishment can be severe also such as imprisonment for certain years.

What are Income Taxes?

It is a tax collected by the government of the country during the financial year on the income of the person. They are several objectives of collecting this tax; some of them are listed below:

1. Economic Development: this is the main and first objective of government; they utilize the amount collected as income tax on the economic development. It is used for overcoming the lack of capital in a country and raising the ratio of savings to national income.
2. Full employment: in an economy, the tax amount and employment level are related; therefore, with high tax collected, the number of employees can be raised.
3. Price stability: this is the short-run objective of income tax; they can be used for achieving price stability. This is achieved by control the inflation level (by controlling private spending). 
4. Reduction of BOP difficulties: income tax can also contribute to reducing the balance of payment difficulties.
5. The last objective of this could be reducing the inequality between income and wealth among people from different sections of society.

Main Differences Between Payroll and Income Taxes

1. The main difference between Payroll and Incomes Taxes is the person who has to pay them. In the case of payroll tax, they are paid by both employees and employers, while only employees have to pay the income tax.
2. Payroll tax is consists of medicare tax, unemployment tax, and social security tax, etc., whereas incomes tax, is consists of federal, state, and local tax, they are associated with the place or locality where you are staying (for federal and state government).
3. Both of them differ in terms of the sources of both taxes. Payroll taxes are on income from wages only, whereas incomes from several other sources are taken into consideration over the year.
4. Both of them are different types of taxes. The payroll tax is a regressive tax that means the tax rate decreases with the increase in the amount of income on which the tax rate is applied increases, whereas Income Tax is a progressive tax that means the tax rate increases with the increase in the amount on which tax is applied.
5. Lastly, they also differ in terms of purpose; the purpose of the payroll tax is to contribute to more benefits of employee’s future while the purpose of incomes tax is increasing contribution in society and government on a large scale.

Conclusion 

Hence the difference between both the taxes should be cleared. Both of them are similar as these have to be withheld by employers at the time of making payroll. These taxes have to be paid as they are the direct source of revenue of the government. Government has to make a building or other things for the welfare of the entire country, for example making public hospitals, parks, roads, for charity work and many more. Therefore it is the responsibility and duty of every citizen to pay these taxes. Every country has its own law if the tax is not paid by the citizens. The money saved by not paying tax is called black money, i.e. illegal.

References 

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272713000170
2. http://webarchive.urban.org/publications/1001065.html
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537109000414
4. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-009-8174-4_9